CURIOSITIES OF COSTUME.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 145, 11 August 1911, Page 4

CURIOSITIES OF COSTUME.

Sonic topical interest is attached to an article in the August “Windsor Magndno” on “Curiosities of Cos-

tir.no,” winch deals with many strange survivals ami development.s from earlier modes of ornate dross,, such as are much in evidence in the elaborate ceremonial of the present Coronal ion season, and the many illustrations are particularly interesting. In the course of it the writer says:—lf clothes do not make the man, they at least proclaim the man, and very often it is well that such should ho the case. Enemies of official costume, who look upon it all as hum! nut and a relic of inecliacvalism, may consider that a lawyer could plead or a minister preach just as well without as with his gown, hut for all that it cannot bo denied that in many cases apparel carries its own weight. The dignity of the lofty personages and of the soldiery who have been taking part ithe great processions of tiro premit year would have boon in essence nc less had they worn no gorgeous or distinctive raiment, but the effect on the mass of .spectators could hardy have been the same. r J he judge’s office certainly gains in impressive-" ness by his imposing dress, the sol diet - ’ by his brilliant uniform, tiw preacher’s by bis learned if more sober garb. Wo cannot get away from our debt to clothes. Since their first beginning in the Garden of Eden, their vagaries have been manifold, and few studies are more interesting than that of costume. The pageantry and ceremonial of the present Coronation season have illustrated once again, for the man ia the street, the almost strange persistence of the instinct for ornate costume even in the drab world of everyday modern life.